Gonz said:Not every Muslim faces east 5 times a day.
The importance of Mecca for Muslims is inestimable. All Muslims, wherever they are on Earth, pray up to five times a day in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca (located at 21 25 24 N and 39 49 24 E in DMS notation). The direction of prayer is known as the qibla.
chcr said:I thought it was always east, regardless. Well if your lucky, you live and you learn.
freak104 said:none of those face East. They face Mecca
Well, you see, the earth has a magnetic field. With a reasonably simple instrument we call a compass, we can easily determine the direction we are facing. Muslims, evidently, must face Mecca and pray five times a day. This facing of Mecca then would be independent of actual compass direction. Does this make it more clear?Gonz said:Oh impart your gracious wisdom on me oh wise & learned freak104.
Gonz said:What happens if they don't have a compass?
Gonz said:What happens if they don't have a compass?
freako104 said:so you are once again going to judge all Muslims because a small sect seeks violence?
http://www.light-of-life.com/eng/gospel/g4105efm.htm
Anyone who wants to understand Islam must change his way of thinking. Islam is not only a religion for the mind, soul and heart of a man, but it presents an all-encompassing culture, theocentric society where all facets of life - child rearing, family life, economics, and politics - are focused on Allah. There is no separation between throne and altar, between politics and religion. In fact, mosques are often the starting point for demonstrations and political upheaval. Friday sermons are not confined to the fostering of faith and spiritual life, but often contain strong appeals to stir up the people for political conflicts in the name of Allah.
This is connected with the Islamic portrayal of Allah. Nothing exists outside the sway of his omnipotence. He is absolute in everything. anyone not surrendering voluntarily to this must be brought into subjection either by cunning strategy, economic persuasion or revolutionary force. Islam means subjection to Allah. It demands surrender of all areas of life to his spirit and the Qur'an's control over all thought and conduct.
Bedouin tribes once said to Muhammad, "We believe in Allah!" But he replied, "You have not believed until you say, `We have submitted!´ " (Sura al-Hujurat 49:14).
Islam is a totalitarian religion which cannot compromise with any "isms" for any period of time. As the history of Islam unfolded, strong impulses repeatedly flowed out of the Qur'an, which overcame ideas and concepts that penetrated the Islamic culture from Europe, Persia and India, resulting in an all-pervading legalistic religion. The ultimate aim was nothing less than the establishment of Allah's kingdom on our earth.
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1978
Why does it matter that the Islamist dimension of terrorism must be specified? Simple. Just as a physician must identify a disease to treat it, so a strategist must name an enemy to defeat it. The great failing in the American war effort since September 2001 has been the reluctance to name the enemy. So long as the anodyne, euphemistic, and inaccurate term "war on terror" remains the official nomenclature, that war will not be won.
Better is to call it a "war on Islamist terrorism." Better yet would be "war on Islamism," looking beyond terror to the totalitarian ideology that lies behind it.
The report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has other good value. It paints an accurate picture of Islamist views, describing these as a "hostility toward us and our values [that] is limitless." Equally useful is the description of the Islamist goal being "to rid the world of religious and political pluralism."
In contrast to those analysts who wishfully dismiss the Islamists as a few fanatics, the 9/11 commission acknowledges their true importance, noting that Osama bin Laden's message "has attracted active support from thousands of disaffected young Muslims and resonates powerfully with a far larger number who do not actively support his methods."The Islamist outlook represents not a hijacking of Islam, as is often but wrongly claimed; rather it emerges from a "long tradition of extreme intolerance" within Islam, one going back centuries and in recent times associated with Wahhabism, the Muslim Brethren, and the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb.
The commission then does something almost unheard of in American government circles: It offers a goal for the war now under way, namely the isolation or destruction of Islamism.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sinaawa1.htm
The entry of the Westerners into Islam is advertised in the Islamic countries as the proof of the validity of Islam and the Muslims are confirmed in their faith. Although the westerner are duped to believe that Islam is a religion of peace, their conversion validates the faith of millions of Muslims in Islamic countries who know that Islam means war, that it means Jihad and that paradise is under the shade of the sword.
Islam is a cult of ignorance and a gigantic terrorist organization, even though many Are not aware and would not readily admit that. When western apologists, motivated by greed or ignorance declare Islam to be a great religion, this serves as confirmation for those millions of Muslims that their way is right and now the Westerners, who are in any ways superior to them, are discovering it too. Islamic countries are poor. They are backward and uncivilized. Muslims see the technological and the scientific advances of the West and have developed a social complex of inferiority vis-à-vis the western world. Unaware that Islam is indeed the main cause of their backwardness, they cling to it as the last straw to salvage their sinking ego. The conversion of the Westerners is highly advertised in Islamic countries and the books written by Western apologists are translated and cherished as they provide a soothing balm to their otherwise bruised self-esteem and boost their battered ego.
In the minds of the Muslims, the fact that these Western apologists claim Islam is a religion of peace is irrelevant. That is their personal opinion and as such counts for nothing. What matters is that they have acknowledged that Allah is God and Muhammad is his messenger. What Allah and his messenger say is what matters, not what Western apologists might believe.
Islam is an edifice erected on lies and deceits. We cannot win the war against Islamic terrorism unless we demolish the deceitful foundation of the ideology that underlies it. In this war, truth and only “truth will set us free”. This truth cannot be announced in Islamic countries. That possibility simply does not exist. This sun must dawn from the West and gradually illumine the horizons of the East.
OK, this is confusing. In everything I've seen from Islamic-majority nations, women have to keep covered up and in general are second to the men. It's the anti-feminism part of the world. So since they're just following their religion closely, I don't see why we can say that the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, was anything resembling a feminist--in his time or any--unless things were worse for women in the 6th century than previously thought.freako104 said:was considered almost a feminist in his time
freako104 said:wow. thats one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. You do know that the majority of Muslims are peaceful, Muhammed(who they are supposed to follow) hated violence, was considered almost a feminist in his time. But if you want to judge all by the actions of a few then why not all groups? even your beloved Christians have done acts of violence in the name of their god. But most are good people.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=241
IF YOU HATE WOMEN, and you hate their sexuality, and you are terrified that you cannot control it, the most effective thing you can do is to mutilate female sexual pleasure. This can be done by a sexual lobotomy, which will destroy an essential and sacred part of a woman’s natural makeup. In achieving this feat on all women, you will become able to ruthlessly dominate them. That’s what female circumcision is all about. The Muslims are the principal religious group that practice female circumcision.
The Other One said:C'mon, now--you're a smart kid. Think about what you wrote.
Could you please provide a link to the validate the statement describing Muslims as peaceful, and especially the one about Muhammed almost being a feminist? May I get you started with this one:
Meanwhile Islam hasn't done her any favors
Gonz said:Not every Muslim faces east 5 times a day.
freak104 said:None face east. they face Mecca.
freak104 said:...none face east.